The Red Mansion

Ishaan came out of the Guild and walked toward the North of the city.

'I need to meet Grandpa to tell him what I know and ask how to deal with Arno'

His destination was The Red Mansion.

The Mansion was a bit of a trek. The Library stood in the southern reaches of the City, the Guild was somewhat closer to its core, and the Red Mansion, with the Citadel beside it, resided in the northern, highest part.

However, Ishaan intentionally took the most crowded and longest routes, which increased the time needed to get there even more.

The reason was very simple

'I enjoy walking in the streets'

But that wasn't because Ishaan enjoyed walking, it was because of his Emblem.

People always looked at him with respect and admiration. The looks on their faces always made him feel good about himself

'It's a beautiful day, Isn't it'

He deeply enjoyed all the glances he was getting.

After walking for more than an hour, Ishaan was able to see The Red Mansion's gates.

It was a huge, wide gate made of red-painted metal bars.

In front of the gate stood two knights wearing bright red armor.

When Ishaan was 200 meters away from the gate, the knights recognized his aura and opened the gate before they could even see him.

And about two minutes later, he was in front of them.

He silently entered without greeting anyone and they closed the gate behind him and went back to their positions.

The Mansion's yard was bustling with life.

On the right side, there was what looked like a training ground that had 10s of Elite Knights training on it.

On the left side, there was an active Barrier that had two Mages dueling, and the Barrier was surrounded by 20-30 people or so, watching the spectacle.

But Ishaan didn't care about any of that, he simply kept walking forward with a quickened pace towards the Mansion's Door.

Here, he wouldn't get as much attention as on the outside, so he tried to enter the Mansion as fast as possible.

The Mansion's door was already open, Ishaan walked inside, and to his right, there were four elevators, one of them was locked and the other three were open.

He walked towards the locked one, added Mana to his Emblem, and put it in front of the door.

A spark appeared for a second between the Emblem and the door then it opened.

Ishaan walked inside the elevator, and on his right, there was a button panel.

There were 10 red buttons and one black button. The red buttons had the numbers 1 to 10 on them, and the black button had the number 0.

Ishaan pressed the button that had the number 10 on it, and as soon as he did that, the elevator's door closed and it started rising.

A couple of seconds later, Ishaan was on the Red Mansion's tenth floor.

Seeing this place is a dream for countless people, let alone living in it.

The hallway on the floor extended for a considerable length, resembling the vast corridors typically found in hotels. It looked just like a hotel floor adorned with numerous fancy doors to the right.

Many of the rooms on this floor boasted a suite-like configuration.

Meanwhile, the left side featured a glass railing offering a view down into the courtyard where you could see magicians dueling and knights training.

As he advanced, the gaps between doors widened, indicating that with each step, the dimensions of the rooms expanded.

This trend continued until he reached the precise midpoint of the floor.

From that juncture onward, the intervals between doors gradually contracted once more.

In front of him, there was a double door painted red, it was the door to the biggest room on the floor

'Grandpa's room ....'

Ishaan made sure that his hair was well-groomed and that his clothes were tidy

'I definitely look elegant.'

He took a deep breath, then knocked on the door twice and took a step back.

About twenty seconds later, an old-looking man opened the door.

The man was dressed in a very sophisticated suit, his hair was white and his eyes were grey.

He looked at Ishaan and politely spoke

"Sir Ishaan, welcome"

And pushed the door open.

Ishaan put a smile on his face and replied politely

"Hello, Sebastian, it's nice to meet you"

Sebastian nodded with a smile and gestured for Ishaan to enter the room, which he quickly did, and then Sebastian closed the door behind him.

The room's theme was red, and it was vast, luxurious, and extravagant.

The walls and the furniture's color were fiery red, many things were blue and black as well, but red was the most prominent color.

Sebastian went to the side where there was a table that had all sorts of drinks on it, then he asked Ishaan.

"Sir Ishaan, what would you like to have?"

"Coffee please"

Sebastian turned around and began making the coffee, while Ishaan walked forward toward the desk at the end of the room.

When he was close enough to clearly see the man behind the desk, Ishaan unconsciously gulped.

The man exuded youthfulness, radiating an intense vitality and vigor. His aura was so bright and powerful that it made Ishaan feel somewhat uneasy.

With reddish-orange hair and eyes displaying an unusual flicker, the man possessed sharp features complemented by a friendly smile.

Despite appearing to be in his 30s, the perception of his age was far from accurate.

To Ishaan, the man looked very intimidating

Naturally, the man knew how Ishaan felt, but he didn't care a lot about it, to him, Ishaan was just young, conceited, and inexperienced.

'Some day he'd grow out of it'

He believed.

The man was holding a book that had a black cover with nothing written on it.

When Ishaan was in front of the desk, the man smacked the book shut and drew a red square in the air in front of him, causing what looked like a black window to appear in the middle of the air.

He placed the book in the black space and snapped his fingers, causing the window-like thing to disappear.

The man looked at Ishaan and said

"Have a seat, Ishaan"

Ishaan nodded and politely replied

"Thanks, Grandpa"